Techniques for automatically configuring and controlling a digital media device are described. A digital media device can be configured or controlled by a mobile device, e.g., a smart mobile phone. When the digital media device is being configured, the digital media device can broadcast a signal, indicating that the digital media device is requesting configuration information from a mobile device. A mobile device located in proximity of the digital media device, upon detecting the signal, can perform various security checks to determine that the request is legitimate, and then open a communication channel with the digital media device. The mobile device can provide user preferences of the mobile device, as well as credentials for accessing and downloading remote content, to the digital media device through the communication channel. Upon receiving the configuration information, the digital media device can use parameters in the configuration information as its settings.